Shane Kimbrough on International Space Station
NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough shows off a pouch holding Thanksgiving turkey. (NASA via YouTube)

The two Americans aboard the International Space Station won’t be getting Thanksgiving Day off, but they will be getting NASA’s traditional turkey dinner … out of a vacuum-packed pouch.

“We’ll heat this up, and it’ll taste really good, just like you’re having it at home,” NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough, the station’s commander, said in a pre-holiday video.

Also on the menu: mashed potatoes, cornbread dressing, green beans and mushrooms (all dehydrated), and pouch-preserved candied yams plus cherry-blueberry cobbler for dessert. There’ll be powdered sweet tea with lemon for Kimbrough, an Atlanta native.

NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, who arrived at the station over the weekend, will be in on the festivities, along with the crew’s three Russians and French astronaut Thomas Pesquet.

“Of course, Thanksgiving in my world is not complete without some football, so we’re going to have Mission Control send up some live football games for us to watch, to complete the experience of Thanksgiving,” Kimbrough said. (However, he’ll have to wait until Saturday to watch his alma mater, Georgia Tech, play the rival Georgia Bulldogs.)

Kimbrough’s a veteran of the orbital Thanksgiving experience, by virtue of his mission aboard the shuttle Endeavour in November 2008. Back then, there were 10 spacefliers aboard the space station for turkey dinner (with cranberry crumble for dessert).

Space station menus have come a long way since the early 1960s, when Project Mercury’s astronauts were limited to squeeze tubes and freeze-dried foods. NASA is still experimenting with off-Earth cuisine: Researchers have found that food tends to taste a bit more blah in space. So don’t be surprised if the astronauts use extra seasoning to add some zip to their turkey dinner.

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